Monster Hunted!
by Scott S. Combs
Summary: Delve into the primal world of Monster Hunter with the young hunter Kurocyn. Here readers will see his world, meet his friends, and follow along in dangerous quests to hunt vicious wyverns and monsters... *rated T for violence*
1. Arrow

Chapter 1 – Arrow  
_by Scott S. Combs_

The village of Arrow lies as the eastern-most of all the guild outposts. By land and barge, it takes a full fortnight to reach Arrow unabated from the Guild Hall. Built upon the mouth of the Yumi Narrows, Arrow hangs suspended by wyvern tendon and jungle vine roughly two hundred and forty-five meters above sea level from its highest turret to the sea itself at the Umi-awa docks. Stilted from the harsh rocks of the Yumi cliff face by monster bone and bamboo, an intricate weave of ladders, ramps, and zip lines interconnect Arrow's thatch roof canopies and platforms.

Beautiful, tropical islands halo the twin Yumi islands. Over the years, no less than a score of small satellite colonies have spread the village throughout the islands like the roots of a seedling in fresh soil; each hamlet branching out over its respective isle with various tribes and farming communities. Their constant harvests of honey, bamboo, herbs, and assorted insects keep Arrow well known within the guild, but the true gem of Arrow lies in her bowyers, fletchers, and marksmen hunters...

West of the market, atop of a watchtower, sat the hunter Kurocyn. "When does your watch end?" he asked.

No answer...

"Hey Pegon," swiveling onto his stomach and quickly leaning over the edge of the roof, "when does your watch end?"

Inside the tower stood another hunter, leaning out the opposite window, "I've still got another hour or two. Why?"

"I've got a hunting party leaving tonight. Was wondering if you wanted to come."

"I know. What's the target? More Kut-Ku? From what I hear, their breeding was getting out of hand..."

"A Shogun attacked the last barge that left this morning."

"A Ceanataur," His head snapped to the side, "this close to Arrow?"

"Yeah, scuttled the ship just off of the western sand bar." Kurocyn swung himself back on top of the turret, "The passengers escaped to the island and were recovered safely, but the cargo is the objective and it's still in the ship..."

The final hours of daylight were choked from the sky by looming thunderheads, highlighted with a distant lightning storm. All at once, the winds seemed to hold their breath and a blanket of rain struck the sea. The thin rain fell steadily, hazing everything in a soft blue accented by the waxing moon's glow...

Kurocyn stood alone near the docks, above him hung an open Cephalos wing, fully extended to shield him from the rain. A low table lay before him covered in various bottles, scrolls, and baskets lit by a single lantern. His hands passed slowly over each item; taking up a large flask, he swirled the deep purple contents in front of the lantern's light when a quick tug on his pant leg caught his attention.

"Ship is loaded and the crew's ready, Nya." The dark furred Felyne at his side, Quiver, has been working with Kurocyn since his first hunt.

"Arigato." He replied with a quick nod. "I'll only be another moment."

Returning his attention to the flask in hand, he carefully wrenched the cork free and withdrew a vial from his chest plate. With the vial filled, he then sealed the vial with a wax signet, returned the vial to its slot, and fetched a fresh vial. The flask now empty, he took up the scrolls set off to the side, unrolling each of them and glancing over the script before securing them into the satchel at his back. Finished with his inventory, Kurocyn snuffed the lantern and headed for the ship...


	2. The Shogun's Court

Chapter 2 – The Shogun's Court  
_by Scott S. Combs_

The waterlogged gangplank creaked with each step Kurocyn took, just like it always did. Despite the night's rain, his boots gripped tightly due to the Genprey scales fixed to the deck. The wide, flat ship was divided into two sections; the storage deck and an elevated stern to the aft. The lower deck was easily fifty meters long; massive spools of rope and crates were grouped together towards the bow. The stern overlooked the whole of the ship with the captain and crew quarters lying beneath. The vessel had two pairs of masts that jutted out from the ship's center at forty-five degree angles roughly dividing the ship into thirds. Her sails were made from Plesioth wings and built into the masts, designed to unfold downward. This was the Stone Tablet, one of the heavy freighters owned by the Duloss family used for transporting large, dangerous, or unusual cargo, and on occasions like tonight, all three. Kurocyn had worked with the family before, and become a close friend to their son, Pegon.

Inside the captain's quarters, the party and crew sat at a large round table discussing their night ahead...

Tocs Duloss leaned over the table, pointing at a map. "Providing the tide hasn't pulled the Trebuchet further from shore, we've put it at just shy of fifty meters out and thirty-five meters down on the Western side. We'll anchor on the Eastern side, here." He noted, setting a miniature of the barge on the map. "Our four divers will descend to the ship and secure our mooring lines to her mast and rudder. The Stone Tablet will then heave the Trebuchet up towards the sand bar. There, the divers can easily recover the cargo in the shallow..."

"What about the Ceanataur, Captain?" A crewman interrupted, "The survivors said it never left the area. If it sees what we're..."

"Our hunter," he snapped at the man, "will post on the sand bar, here. Should anyone spot the Shogun, all crew members are to return to the ship immediately. Kurocyn will engage the beast, while Pegon guards the ship. Any other questions?"

The barge pulled into the bay silently, the storm masking her approach. Once in position, a catch was released and the Stone Tablet's anchor and chain crashed into the sea. The crew swarmed over the sand bar, staking torches down and running the two lines over the sand to the other side. The team of divers rattled their thunderbug lanterns to life and were soon out of sight beneath the waves.

Kurocyn watched over the sand bar from the South, keeping the moon's shadows at his back. Bow drawn and arrow knocked; he had doused the lanterns nearest him, keeping him veiled from sight. His eyes darted between the water looking for the divers' lanterns, and the ship to keep count of the crew.

The mooring lines drew taught and the Stone Tablet roared under the strain. Inch by inch, the ropes drew across the sand bar, slowly entrenching themselves despite the crews' best efforts. Then, with a flash of lightning, a broken mast stabbed towards the sky through the rain tossed waters. A second flash masked the divers' surfacing lanterns, and the thunder clap from the first drowned their cries.

When the crew finally heard the divers' warning, it was too late. As if a whip wielded by the gods of the seas, the north most mooring line snapped free. It cracked louder than a wyvern's roar and its strike more terrible than its bite. Four of the men lay dead, their bodies torn and beaten, another two crawling through the sands, searching for their legs.

The sands trembled and the ocean swole, a single blue crest burst through the waters. The Shogun was here...


	3. Timing

Chapter 3 - Timing  
_by Scott S. Combs_

The moon reflected itself a thousand times over in the waters cascading down the beast; making its brilliant blue carapace shine as if a beacon. Two great claws rose from the bay, remnants of the cut line still caught in the left arm's joint. It made no sound, save for the guttural moan of compressing sand beneath the weight of the Shogun's step. With each movement, blades of light lashed out from the angles and edges of its armor, assaulting the hapless onlookers' eyes. Twin antennae whipped over the sand bar, collecting the screams of the crew and gauging their positions in the static of the rain. Dead, dying, and soon to be, the Shogun could see them all...

The stinging sound of a sword's edge drawing across a whetstone, and another scream fell silent. Rainwater cleansing the beast's scythe for the next strike...

"If you can walk, get on the ship!" Pegon called out, "Kurocyn, NOW!"

The rain and screams muffled Kurocyn's release. The Ceanataur's right antenna twitched only slightly before his arrow punched clean through the upper joint of its back leg. The joint blew out, buckling the leg under the sudden strain; the monster fell back into the bay waters. Its claws and antennae tore at the air and sand, fruitlessly grasping for its attacker.

Kurocyn knocked a second shaft. The draw of his bow was a dance he knew all too well, the familiarity kept him focused on his marksmanship and the target. Hidden in the night around him, there was time for technique. He slowed his breathing, mentally noting the natural pauses at the bottom of each breath...

The Shogun climbed back onto the sandbar, clearly enraged at the assault. Then it paused; there were no more screams. The beast's antennae still as it focused through the steady drone of the rainfall.

Ducked behind the forward shipping crates, Tocs Duloss discreetly directed his men...

"Keep quite men," he whispered, "Hiro, have the wounded been moved below deck?"

"Aye aye sir." Hiro nodded. "Your son ordered that you signal him when the crew is secure."

"Where is he?"

Hiro hesitated, then slowly tilted his head towards the sand bar. "Still ashore..."

Steeling himself before the Shogun, Pegon had withdrawn to his shield. The crisp blue shine of his steel melted him into the falling rain. Poor eyesight blinded the beast in the storm, and Pegon made not a sound, nor moved but to breathe. His shield arm tightly braced and his feet anchored firmly into the wet sands, Pegon held.

A flash of lightning silhouetted the Shogun against the night sky, and in that instant a second arrow was suddenly embedded just under the Ceanataur's right arm. Then, as if a report from the arrow itself, thunder roared over the bay. The beast reared up, flailing wildly in pain.

Pegon's eye barely caught the blue flash to his side, before he realized what had happened. A shower of splinters and blood fell around him. It struck at the ship...

Neither his stance or shield wavered, but quickly looking back, he could now see into the ship's cargo hold. He saw his father's body, laying half buried under what was once the Stone Tablet's forecastle.

"No!" Pegon cried, turning back to the Shogun. "Kurocyn, NOW!"

The third arrow flew unnoticed, finding a recess not more than an inch away from the second arrow. A solid crunch followed by the wet sound of organs rupturing.

The monster, seeming unfeeling to the shot, launched its right claw forward at Pegon. He pivoted left as the blade struck his shield, letting the creature's weight carry it past him. A swath of sparks erupted to his left, briefly illuminating the sand. Pegon, stepping back and to his right, thrust the bayonet of his gun-lance deep into the Shogun's already wounded arm...

"Burn."

A faint click went unheard in the falling rain. The Shogun's black, lifeless eyes seemed to look into Pegon's soul, and they felt the other's rage...


	4. To Barter with Beasts

Chapter 4 – To Barter with Beasts  
_by Scott S. Combs_

Tocs Duloss opened his eyes but darkness was all he could see; a piercing chime was all he could hear...

"What happened?"

He felt the cold, wet sand against his face; the rapid chills of the raindrops on his back offset by a warm pulse at his side...

Seeing Pegon's strike into the Shogun's wound, Kurocyn quickly took up a vial from his shoulder plate. He gave the vial a quick shake, then locked it into a cylinder at the front of his bow. A subtle hiss from the bone needle piercing the wax seal...

Tocs' vision returned with a flash of sparks over him and his hearing to the screech of steel across steel. His body ached and his arm felt ablaze, but rolling to his side and seeing his son stalwart versus this monster, he smiled...

"Burn..."

The blast caught him off guard. First came its light; the brilliance of a new day's dawn harnessed by hunter. The roar of a wyvern; the cry that dwarfs thunder and shakes men's hearts with its power. And fire fierce enough to shatter steel and wyvern scale alike...

Reflexes snapped Tocs' arms up to cover his face, but only one arm responded...

Where the beast once stood, cold night air shimmered in the residual heat while falling rain boiled before ever touching the now glassed sands. Two deep trenches led back several feet to where Pegon now stood, stance regained, his shield steaming from the proximity of his fire. A slat of steel jutted from his gun-lance, rapidly venting superheated fumes.

The Shogun collapsed to its left side, blown off-balance by the force of Pegon's attack. Right arm and front leg gone, the creature raged, the remaining claw cutting deep arcs into the sand. Black ichor flowed from the horrid cavity and running over the remnants of the shell nearest the wound, boiled into a noxious smoke.

Kurocyn knocked another shaft; a wide brush at the base of the loaded cylinder met with the blade of the arrow. Drawing the string, the brush traversed the arrow, lining it with the viscous fluid. He aimed for the smoke...

"Father, can you hear me?" Pegon shouted over the Ceanataur's cries.

The familiar sound of steel against steel rang out as Pegon's shield met with the flat of a claw...

Tocs didn't respond.

With no shell to hinder the blow, Kurocyn's arrow erupted out the Shogun's flank. A thin wisp of purple mist trailed from the wound and vanished into the smoke. Another arrow found the Shogun's core, and another...

With each arrow, the dying beast's movements slowed, Kurocyn's poisons were taking hold. The black fluid from the Shogun's wound now a binary sludge of blood and toxins.

Pegon advanced cautiously, his guard held firm. The Ceanataur had stopped attacking, now laboring only to breath. Moving between the monster and his father, he watched as its life faded. Once cold black eyes clouded over into dull gray, and swift, mechanical movements gave way to a lifeless shell...

"Pegon, tend to your father." Kurocyn said gently, putting a hand on Pegon's shoulder. "I'll tend to the Shogun."

Pegon turned and knelt over his father. "Hiro! Bring a litter!"

With his father safely back on the ship, Pegon approached Kurocyn who was crawling around in the cavernous hole in his kill.

"Those last arrows, what did you..."

"Distilled Rathian venom." Kurocyn interrupted, tossing a empty vial out of the Shogun to Pegon. "It expands and thickens the blood, causing slow bleed outs through open wounds, eventually stopping the heart."

Pegon glanced between the vial and the mounds of gelatinous blood strewn over the sand...

"Will the men be able to collect the body safely?" Pegon asked as he handed the vial back.

"The toxin degrades quickly and has to enter the bloodstream to effect you. If the crew wears gloves until its stowed on board and any exposed wounds away, they'll be fine."

"I know it's your kill Kurocyn, but can you leave that severed arm be?"

"Sure, why?" Kurocyn grunted, pulling away a charred piece of the shell.

"He took my father's arm, I'll take his."


	5. The Swamp's Blossom

Chapter 5 – The Swamp's Blossom

_by Scott S. Combs_

"Hoo..."

A gentle call flows amongst leafless branches; a solemn lullaby pouring from the twilight mists...

"Hoo... Hoo..."

A single weed stalk shifts, signaling an inaudible flight. Descending slowly, the owl looked down on the unsuspecting mouse coldly. Her talons pivoting forward to collect her meal...

A jarring cough broke the silence. The mouse fled; the owl fell. Unable to move, unable to even cry out; the poison allowed the owl but two courtesies, the sight of the Ioprey skulking towards her, and a body too numb to feel the strike.

The fortunate mouse blitzed along a mudded path, finally leaping from a strange rubbery rock into its warren.

Hitome Wrenburg only smiled, glad that her boot could help. Crouched down among a thistle of herbs and decaying mulch, she had observed the Ioprey's hunt. Now fed, she hoped that it would return to the nest, and to her quarry, an Iodrome...

But it just stood there, casually glancing side to side. Almost like it was waiting...

Then, in what seemed to be an accident, the Ioprey glanced towards Hitome and their eyes met. It knew!

No sooner than Hitome began to gasp, a familiar cough came from her hard left. Years of training and honed muscle memory overrode her surprise as she launched off her right foot, pivoting on her left...

The noxious spittle connected against her now drawn shield. Training her focus forward, she quickly sighted the closing distance. It had already lunged...

A second cough at her flank.

Hitome rotated at the hip, slicing her axe vertically while swinging her shield arm back at head level. Each arm met resistance. The left found an unprotected throat; the right, a cancerous spray of venom.

Still turning and now able to see the second Ioprey, she felt her blade free itself of the skull and continued the arc overhead, then released the haft. The first monster's momentum brought its limp body into Hitome's shield as she spun, diverting it to her left. Her sailing axe met the now lunging Ioprey in mid-flight, burrowing deep into its head crest; its body falling in a heap before the hunter.

To Hitome's left she tracked the third Ioprey, the bait for this ambush; it was charging...

The sun's final rays grasped out over the swamp, and with their passing, the swamp awoke. Insects chirped, reptiles surfaced, Teradax took wing, all followed suit by a wyvern's distant roar...

"Sounded like Rathian, nya... " A Felyne meowed, slowly stroking the neck of the Aptonoth she was sitting on.

"It's moving the other direction, towards the sea," Hitome commented, emerging from the growing night, a large pack slung over shoulder; blood slowly dripping from a crimson pool at its base, "probably hunting Velociprey to feed her young."

"There's Lady Hitome, nya! Shyster was getting antsy."

"Awe, poor guy." Hitome cooed at the dinosaur, "He was probably just getting bored. Did you play with him any, Noerru?"

"No way nya!" Noerru squeaked, crossing her paws over her chest, "Shyster'd squish me, nya."

Hitome just giggled before setting the bloodstained sack on their cart; then without warning, promptly kicked Shyster's back right thigh.

He reared up, throwing Noerru hissing from her perch. The Felyne landed just as Shyster spun to meet Hitome, his tail spikes just grazing the fur atop her ears...

"Who's my smart boy?" Hitome cooed sarcastically, rubbing the top of Shyster's head, his tongue hanging lazily from his mouth.

He replied with a guttural bellow and pushed forward against Hitome's hand, his tail waving frantically.

"Good boy..." She smiled. "Let's go home."


End file.
